History in the making.

Recently, in my War and Peace class, we’ve been discussing the importance of storytelling in times of war and how that has changed over time. “Since You Went Away,” a compilation of letters written during WWII by army wives and loved ones, shared the story of those at home during WWII that might not have been shared otherwise. Now that we are living in this technological era, not as much precedence is placed on the writing of letters. In class, we had a discussion/debate about if we thought these stories could still be told in years to come if we don’t have these letters to document it. Instead of writing letters, soldiers are now blogging, e-mailing, or even video chatting with their loved ones. And it’s possible that all of these could be lost at any given moment unless the emails are being printed out and saved or all chats are recorded. There’s no way of knowing if these are going to be preserved and could possibly be used in the future to tell the story of those involved in the war. Storytelling has played a huge part in our class. We’ve read other memoirs and autobiographies such as “Maus” by Art Spiegelmen, “Testament of Youth”, by Vera Brittain, and “Survival in Auschwitz”, by Primo Levi. All of the texts we’ve read and compared have all shared two themes, war and storytelling.
So this got me thinking, originally in class when we were debating about the chances of storytelling continuing even with the lack of letters, I said I still thought things would be documented and our children would still have original e-mails and other memories from the Iraq War. But after realizing this major theme and how these were compiled, I began to question if this could or would actually happen. Than I came across a heading when I was looking through my news feed on my googlereader account. “Are you a Military Blogger with Storytelling Skills? Interested in pitching Film ideas? A Hollywood Filmmaker Thinks He can Help” Film Producer Larry Meistrich is on the search for milbloggers who think that their story could be a film. He claims, “Military bloggers are natural storytellers.” I wondered, how many troops would be honored by this post and how many would be offended. At first it seemed kind of intrusive but then when I really started to think about it, it brought me back to that discussion we had in class. There is hope for stories to continue being told. As long as we don’t run out of Larry Meistrich’s we will hopefully still have a solid historical reference for the Iraq War one hundred years after. I’ll be interested to see how many movies made from milblogging make it to the big screen. I’d definitely want to go see one.

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30, May. 2009

Support Our Troops?

We see this saying everywhere. Magnets or bumper stickers for cars, signs in the front yards of our neighbors, but what does supporting our troops mean. Some might think it’s to support them and their choice to go to war, keep sending them care packages and make sure they know they are appreciated. But others, even families of soldiers believe this support to mean ending the war. Personally, I’m torn between what to think. But I think if I had a close friend fighting overseas, I would be able to make up my mind quickly. I’m currently reading “Slaughterhouse Five” by Kurt Vonnegut, and near the beginning of the book, we meet a wife of an old war friend who believes the latter of the two opinions on support. In response to the war book Vonnegut is planning to write, Mary, the wife, says this:

” But you’re going to write it that way, are you.” This wasn’t a question. It was an accusation.
“I — I don’t know,” I said.
“Well, I know,” she said. “You’ll pretend you were men instead of babies, and you’ll be played in the movies by Frank Sinatra and John Wayne or some of those other glamorous, war-loving, dirty old men. And war will look just wonderful, so we’ll have a lot more of them. And they’ll be fought by babies like the babies upstairs.”(pg. 18)

I can understand where Mary’s coming from. Especially when her husband is a WWII veteran and all of the struggles they must have faced once he came home and had to be reintegrated into a normal lifestyle again. But, I never realized the amount of families fighting to bring their troops home, I guess I associated that opinion with the hippies who stand in downtown Grand Rapids, saying “honk for peace” and “support our troops, end the war.” In the blog I am subscribed to, “Military Families Speak Out”, I found a recent blog dedicated to the reasons they oppose the war in Afghanistan. The following are sub-topics of their discussions,

“Bring my loved one home now. Don’t send my loved one (back) to Iraq or Afghanistan. (Tell your MFSO story)”
“If it was wrong when Bush did it, it’s wrong when Obama does it. Military occupation is wrong.”
“The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are exacting a terrible toll from our loved ones in the military, our country, and the Iraqi and Afghan people.”
“Our loved ones are being ordered to fight to prop up a corrupt Afghan government. This doesn’t keep us safe.”

This really made me start to think. The ending of World War II was such an amazing day, especially in the United States. The Iraq War has been going on for so so long, and these are all perfectly legit reasons for ending the war. But it seems that we’re in too deep. We’ve gotten ourselves involved and we can’t just cop out now. Is this war ever going to end??

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MFSO Background Information:
Opposing the War in Afghanistan
November 6, 2009

Making it Work.

The United States has a very sad 50 percent divorce rate. Keeping that in mind, imagine not seeing your loved one for days, months, even years, and maybe only getting to hear their voice once or twice a week, if you’re lucky. Unfortunate circumstances like these are extremely common in a military relationship. And although we are fortunate enough to have the internet and things like skype and iChat, the struggles military couples face today are similar to those faced during World War II. Communication is and always has been a key factor in keeping these relationships together. In World War II it was writing letters and today it’s more often speaking to each other or communicating via e-mail. Writing letters to their soldiers was the highlight of most women during WWII. Some would even write letters once even twice every single day. Letters were full of “I love you’s”, “come home soon” and other terms of endearment. But these letters served a purpose more than just to remind the soldiers that they were loved. These letters were full of encouragement, hope and of course, details of all the happenings at home. In the following excerpt from “Since You Went Away- World War II Letters from American women on the home front”, Flora writes to her husband Erman who is over seas,

” Our letters mean a lot to us, do they not darling? Somehow, by telling you everything just as it happens each day and reading your letters over and over again i have a feeling of continuity so that when we are together again, even if it is only for a few hours we seem to resume our relationship on a physical basis without any feeling of separation having preceded those hours. It is a glorious state and is one of the precious things about our marriage.” (pg. 114-115)

It was also said that “men in combat often remarked that receiving a letter was like a ten minute furlough.” (pg. 128) Which I believe would be the same today with an e-mail or phone call. Some might argue that making a long distance relationship is very difficult in itself, then add a war, financial struggles, being a single parent and the stress of the distance and you have a recipe for disaster. The truth is, it would be very easy to let a relationship like this go. Instead of trying so hard to make it work and having both people equally trying, you might just rather give up. But their are many ways, especially today that military families can get help in these areas and be given the support need to actually make it work. I found an article entitled, “Set Goals to Keep Marriage Strong”, based solely on military families. In this article, I found out that the military actually offers different kinds of support groups and counseling geared specifically towards keeping marriages healthy and strong during times of distance, and reintegration. According to Mike Schindler, who is the founder of Operation Military Family, an organization dedicated to helping strengthen military families, publisher of a book called, “Operation Military Family: How Military Families are Fighting to Preserve Their Marriages,” and creator of a web site devoted to military couples, there are a few specific things to keep in mind when trying to make a military relationship work.

“…he discovered two key concepts for a successful relationship: Have a strong vision and create a support network. Schindler said it’s important to set goals. If the vision is to be married for 50 years, then figure out how you see yourselves getting there. “If you don’t have a common vision, where you’re taking your relationship, it’s easy to get off course,” he explained.” (Family Matters Blog, By: Elaine Wilson)

Everyone just assumes, well I’m getting married, that means I’m going to be married forever. But discussing things like this on a regular basis is needed when you’re in a relationship like this. Schindler also talked about how important it is to know when to talk about issues or conflicts you’re having and when not to. If that time isn’t a good time, try and schedule a good time for both of you to talk about it. And, don’t shut down in times of conflict. One husband got mad after a fight with his wife and shut down communication for several days. Can you imagine how worried and scared that wife was while trying to get a hold of her husband overseas, in the midst of fighting in a war? I don’t even want to experience a smidgen of what that felt like.

Although times have changed, the strength and effort it takes to keep a military relationship healthy has not. I commend all relationships that stay strong and true through times like these. I hope to never personally experience it.

Barrett Litoff, Judy and David Smith. Since You Went Away. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1991.

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September, 28. 2009.